The subject matter described herein relates generally to imaging systems, and more particularly, to systems and methods for performing image type recognition.
Imaging systems are widely used to generate images of various anatomical features or objects of interest. For example, in an oncology examination, a patient may go through a series of examinations, using for example, a computed tomography (CT) system, a positron emission tomography (PET) system, an ultrasound system, an x-ray system, a magnetic resonance (MR) system, a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system, and/or other imaging systems. The series of examinations is performed to continuously monitor the patient's response to treatment. The images acquired during the examination may be displayed or saved to enable a physician to perform a diagnosis of the patient. Thus, the patient is typically scanned with an imaging system selected to provide the most relevant images needed by the physician to perform the medical diagnosis.
Additionally, in some clinical procedures, the patient may be injected with a contrast agent such that when the patient is scanned, the resultant images provide additional information that is relevant to the diagnosis. Accordingly, in operation a patient may be scanned using a variety of imaging modalities. Moreover, the patient may be scanned with or without the use of a contrast agent. Because, a typical patient may be scanned using a variety of imaging modalities and with or without a contrast agent, the user performing the scanning procedure manually labels the acquired images to denote, among other things, the modality of imaging system used to acquire the images and whether the acquired images include contrast agent information or do not include contrast agent information.
However, manually labeling the images requires significant manual input. For example, inputting the image labels is performed manually by the user to denote the imaging modality utilized to generate the images and the use of the contrast agent. As a result, manually inputting the labels on the images is relatively time consuming. Moreover, because the labels are entered manually, the labels may include errors. For example, the label on a particular image may incorrectly state the modality used to acquire the image. Additionally, the label may incorrectly state that a contrast agent was utilized when a contrast agent was not utilized. Accordingly, the incorrectly labeled images may lengthen a time for the physician to perform the diagnosis of the patient.